War and Peace

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1867

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Book 2, Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6 Summary

In the early months of 1806, Nikolai Rostov returns home on leave from the army, accompanied by his fellow officer Denisov. The Rostovs are happy to see him. Nikolai now prefers to spend time around other soldiers rather than his family and his supposed sweetheart, Sonya. Nikolai’s father, Count Rostov, has borrowed vast sums of money by remortgaging all his estates. He throws a lavish party to please his family and honor General Bagration. The defeat at Austerlitz has led to Bagration being hailed a hero. Kutuzov, however, is now considered an old failure. The dinner guests praise the heroism of the Russian soldiers and quietly gossip about a supposed affair between Pierre’s wife Helene and Dolokhov, who is attending the dinner. Few mention Andrei, who is missing after Austerlitz and presumed dead.

Bagration arrives, but he cuts an awkward figure. He is a natural soldier who is not suited to the fineries of high society. However, the guests drink many toasts to his honor and smash the glasses cheerfully on the floor.

At the dinner, despite the good food and the engaging conversation, Pierre cannot help but feel depressed. He remembers how he allowed Dolokhov to stay at his house and lent him money, only to hear rumors of the affair between Dolokhov and his wife. He dislikes Dolokhov’s sneering manner and worries about the rumors of his wife’s infidelity. Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel. Dolokhov accepts the challenge.

They meet the next day at dawn. Pierre has never fired a gun before, but he manages to wound Dolokhov. Nikolai takes the wounded Dolokhov to receive treatment. Dolokhov weeps and reveals a tender side. Though he is a bully, a card player, and a drinker, he also shows real affection for his mother and his disabled sister.

Pierre mistakenly believes that he has killed Dolokhov. He blames his actions on his wife’s lack of honor. Pierre tells Helene that he married her even though he did not love her. Helene denies the rumors about her infidelity and accuses her husband of being a fool. He has a sudden violent urge to hurt her but controls himself just in time. Pierre leaves a week later to return to Saint Petersburg, putting Helene in control of his property.

Chapters 7-9 Summary

Lisa is almost ready to give birth to her child at Bald Hills. Her in-laws do not tell Lisa that her husband Andrei is missing after the battle at Austerlitz. Like the people in Moscow, they believe that Andrei is dead and that the news might affect the birth of the child. Lisa is tense and worried. Her contractions begin. The doctor’s carriage arrives, but the doctor is not alone—Andrei is with him, having randomly met the doctor at the train station. Marya notices that the war has changed her brother’s demeanor. He appears softened by his experiences.

Lisa welcomes her husband but does not grasp the significance of his sudden arrival, since she never knew he might be missing or dead. The birth is difficult, and the house echoes with Lisa’s pained screams, which are eventually replaced with the sound of a crying baby. Andrei rushes to the bedroom and discovers that Lisa died during the birth. The expression on her dead face seems to accuse him of inflicting pain and suffering on her. Andrei feels as though his soul is being ripped apart. He believes that Lisa has accused him of a crime, one he can never remedy or rectify. Marya becomes the godmother of the baby, who is named Nikolai after his grandfather.

Chapters 10-16 Summary

Count Rostov covers up Nikolai’s role as Dolokhov’s second in the duel. Nikolai receives a promotion rather than the expected demotion. He has also become “very friendly” (352) with the wounded Dolokhov, and they spend many hours together, deep in conversation. Dolokhov is an intense character, with a fierce loyalty to his friends and a deep distrust of people. Dolokhov considers all people either useful or harmful. All women belong to the latter category, but Dolokhov has searched his whole life for a woman he believes to be heavenly enough to “regenerate, purify, and elevate” (353) him. He intends to marry such a woman, if he ever finds one.

Dolokhov falls in love with Nikolai’s former sweetheart Sonya, who he believes fits his profile of the ideal woman. However, she refuses to marry him. Nikolai tells her that she is free of their engagement and that she can marry Dolokhov with his blessing. However, Sonya still loves Nikolai and insists that she would rather love him from afar than marry Dolokhov. Denisov, who is still staying with the Rostov family, falls in love with Natasha Rostov.

Dolokhov is bitter that Sonya loves Nikolai. He organizes a big party with the aim of playing cards against Nikolai. Dolokhov is a skilled card player, and he wants to punish Nikolai by winning a huge sum of money from him. He settles on the figure of 43,000 rubles because 43 is the sum total of Dolokhov and Sonya’s respective ages. Nikolai realizes that Dolokhov intends to take his money, but he feels socially trapped at the card table. After Nikolai loses to Dolokhov, his pain is all the more profound because he has promised not to ask his heavily indebted father for more money. Nikolai knows that Count Rostov will not be able to refuse his request. He does not want to drive the family further into debt due to his gambling habits.

Nikolai returns to the Rostov home, his thoughts filled with shame and despair. He finds Sonya, Natasha, and Denisov playing music together. Denisov plays a song he wrote for Natasha, who sings the lyrics he has composed for her. His sister’s untrained but pure voice helps soothe Nikolai’s turbulent mind. She sings a high note, and he feels a moment of euphoria, realizing that he can still be happy despite the darkness and despair in the world.

Nikolai admits to his father that he lost a huge sum of money in a game of cards. He bursts into tears as he confesses his shame. Count Rostov quietly comforts his son. He does not criticize or blame Nikolai. At the same time, Natasha tells her mother that Denisov has made her an offer of marriage, though she admits that she is “not in love with him” (369). Countess Rostov is not thrilled that everyone in the house seems to be in love and tells Natasha that she is too young to marry anyone. Natasha tells Denisov that she cannot marry him. Crushed, he leaves Moscow the next day. Nikolai pays his debt to Dolokhov with his father’s help. Two weeks later, he rejoins his army regiment in Poland.

Book 2, Part 1 Analysis

Pierre doesn’t seem to have a strong internal compass. Because of this lack of internal ambition or motivation, he is simply stuck acting out his version of correct aristocratic behavior. First, he marries a beautiful woman—the idea being that his wealth coupled with her looks is the socially appropriate match. But the marriage is unsatisfying in every way, including in its inability to integrate the awkward Pierre into high society. Now, though Pierre does not love his wife and has no particular inner sense of betrayal at her infidelity, he resents looking like a fool in front of his ostensible peers. He challenges Dolokhov to a duel because he allows his abstract thinking about how to prove his social status to become obsessive and intrusive thoughts. The duel is the manifestation of Pierre’s bitterness and his tendency to focus on ideas until they consume him. But despite the ostensible correctness of avenging his wife’s honor or his own through dueling, the actual event does little to shore up Pierre’s standing. Instead, Pierre realizes that this social rite horrifies him—as have all his other attempts to act in a manner society expects.

The duel echoes the wartime experiences of Andrei and Nikolai. The brutal reality of the battlefield helped those characters divest themselves of their preconceptions about honor and glory; similarly, the chaotic, absurd duel bears no relation to honorable behavior or actual skill. Two men fumble around in the snow, and one nearly dies. Because of this nonsensical display, Pierre is as disillusioned with high society as Nikolai and Andrei are with war. As punishment, Pierre tours his estates, trying to rid himself of his violent obsessions. Pierre may not have cured his personality flaws, but he is ready to acknowledge they exist.

Lisa’s death has a profound effect on Andrei. He feels as though her final facial expression accuses him of a crime. This could be an accusation of abandonment: Andrei ripped Lisa away from her social circle, leaving her in the dull, morbid, and empty Bald Hills while he went to war. However, the moment is deeper than simple feelings of husbandly guilt. Instead, Andrei’s sudden, deeply felt empathy for his dead wife echoes his moment of sublime contemplation while looking the battlefield’s infinite sky. In death, Lisa becomes the manifestation of Andrei’s disillusionment with glory. Andrei never considered Lisa to be an intelligent or interesting woman, dismissing what she enjoyed as trivialities, so his emotion at her bedside isn’t directed at his mistreatment of her. Rather, he suffers because he cannot see that her life had any meaning—and this hopelessness reminds him of the dead bodies that surrounded him after the battle. Bald Hills, the place that was supposed to be a protective shield of peace, turns out to be vulnerable to the carnage of war.